Jake seriously sucked at doing his current job. He kept trying to avoid it, only to get hit by the realization that he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. As for what his job was that Jake was so god damn horrible at?

To do nothing.

He was not good at doing nothing.

After sleeping for nearly a full day after returning to his lodge, Jake had woken up with his resources mostly restored and his headache not as bad as before. He was still super weak, but he at least felt like he could do some minor tasks. Maybe he could even do a bit of light alchemy experimentation?

Nope.

Jake had tried and was struck by a headache that made it impossible to focus whenever he tried to do anything straining. Next up, he tried his Puzzle Box of the Seeker, and while it wasn’t as straining due to not really using much mana, it still took full concentration and a calm mind to properly work with, and getting intermittent headaches while trying to beat levels wasn’t very productive. Quite the opposite, as failing a level due to a sudden bout of pain after spending a long time progressing only led to frustration, which led to more headaches, which led to more frustration.

Not that he could find anything actually productive to do. His body was weak, so he couldn’t do much with that, and using resources hurt and broke concentration, making any task that took intense concentration borderline impossible.

In the end, he did settle on doing what little he could: read books. Not as fast as he usually could, and he had to stay away from the too-complicated stuff, but at least it made him feel like he wasn’t completely wasting his time and being useless.

After a bit of reading and relaxing, Jake began to feel better. He also got an idea on the second day as he went down to his laboratory beneath the lodge and into the reservoir. There, he found a potential help to his current ailment: the Dewstone of Serenity and the Serene Water.

If anything could help him, it had to be this, right? The Dewstone had even been made to heal someone in the first place, as per the description:

…A small stone created by the combined effort of a group of water nymphs to help heal a close friend…

This was even further echoed by the water the Dewstone helped create:

…This water calms the mind of anyone who consumes it, allowing them to more easily focus while suppressing the effects of most mental afflictions. Continued consumption will help heal minor soul injuries…

Jake definitely didn’t expect this to be some kind of cure, but he did hope it would at least help with the pain. Testing it out, he did discover that the water had a soothing effect, which, even if it wasn’t actually helping him heal faster, would at least make the process more comfortable. In other words, it was pain meds water.

That’s how Jake ended up chilling in a makeshift hot tub of Serene Water he had poured while occasionally drinking a bit from a second container. Being down in the laboratory for a good portion of the day also helped sell one of the many lies Miranda had spread that Jake was busy doing alchemy and was working on some big project.

Days passed with Jake doing nothing productive outside of slowly recovering and reading low-level books. While he despised not being able to do more, it was at least comforting he could see the healing progressing. Quite literally so, as it was shown on his status.

Status

Mana Points (MP): 139,556/199,441 (442,484)

His limited mana poll had gone from a maximum of 198,367 to 199,441, which wasn’t a lot, but it was something. As the worst period of weakness began to wear off, the recovery should also accelerate somewhat. At least, that’s what Eron told him when he talked with Jake over the phone. The healer wanted to go in person, but Miranda believed that would be a bad idea as it would give credence to any rumors that Jake was seriously injured.

In fact, Miranda wanted to limit Jake’s contact with anyone. This was to tell the story that he was too busy, and Jake’s existing reputation as a loner who didn’t like to be disturbed helped him out here. All this was only temporary until Sylphie, Vesperia, and the Fallen King returned to Earth, as there was little doubt the three of them would visit, and the plan was still to have at least one of them remain around Jake for protection during his recovery.

It ended up taking a few more days of Jake suffering through doing fuck-all before he finally got word that Sylphie and Vesperia had returned. To keep up appearances, they would first stop by Miranda before going over to Jake’s place. Sylphie offered to just sneak them over to Jake’s place, but considering Sylphie’s interpretation of the word stealth, it was determined this method was better.

Jake was sitting by the pond looking at the eels swimming around when he felt the two of them enter the valley. He barely had time to turn to look at them as a green ball of feathers flew over and nearly crashed into him.

“Ree!” Sylphie screeched, stopping right in front of Jake, still kicking up a lot of dust and disturbing the surface of the pond, scaring the poor eels to dive deeper.

“Good to see you, too,” Jake smiled as he reached out and gave her some scratches, the bird quickly getting comfortable sitting in his lap.

“What is the current state of your body and soul?” Vesperia asked, getting straight to the point while walking over with hurried steps, clearly trying to keep her usual calm and collected persona up. Spoiler: she wasn’t doing a very good job at that.

“Body is mostly fine; it’s the soul that’s the problem,” Jake shook his head and sighed.

“Ree?”

“The worst period of weakness should be over within the week I hope, while the rest will take a lot longer,” Jake explained. “But, hey, in a week, I shouldn’t be useless anymore, just less useful than before my… unfortunate accident.”

“Is there truly nothing to be done?” Vesperia asked. “The Endless Empire has many methods to help recover more quickly, even from severe soul damage.”

“I don’t doubt the resources or knowledge of the Endless Empire, but the-“

Jake quickly stopped himself as he was about to say that the Malefic Viper had told him he should just wait, but sharing that he had spoken to the Viper at all was kind of precarious, so Jake quickly saved it.

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“-healer called Eron told me that natural recovery is the best, and I would lean toward trusting his judgement.”

“I am aware the man has a Bloodline and it quite competent in his own right, but he is still only C-grade,” Vesperia insisted.

“Look, if you have something in mind, I’m not going to outright reject it, but seeing as we’re cut off from the rest of the multiverse during this system event, we don’t have anyone besides C-grades available to do anything,” Jake said, shaking his head. “And of all the C-grade healers I’ve ever met, I would trust Eron’s assessment the most. Doubt he became the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord for nothing.”

Vesperia looked uncertain for a few moments before just nodding. “Alright… but if you aren’t fully healed by the time the system event en-“

“I bloody well expect to be,” Jake interrupted her as the notion sent a shiver down his spine, so much so that he didn’t even want her to fully vocalize it. Alright, he didn’t expect to fix Palate, but his soul should at least be good by that time if he fully relaxed, leaving him with only the damaged skill to address.

“But if you’re not, allow me to send a message back and ask for ideas,” Vesperia still insisted, Jake eventually just agreeing to keep the peace.

“Ree?” Sylphie, who had really snuggled herself into Jake’s lap, asked.

“Right, there was also that,” Jake sighed. “Miranda is pretty damn insistent someone should stay around and waste their time here with me doing fuck-all just because I fucked up. Something I don’t feel good about requesting at all…”

Maybe he could argue with Miranda that it really wasn’t needed, so he could avoi-

“It would be best for me to remain by your side,” Vesperia said instantly, even raising a hand. “There are no more planets that need my immediate attention, and as a True Royal, it was never expected of me to be someone taking the frontlines in the first place. My only true connection to this planet is also only Sire, so it would logically make sense that I choose to remain close to you and your home, plus, I promised the other True Royals before leaving I would stick mostly with you. Finally, I do need to focus on my internal Hive and fully rebuilding my Queens’s Guards, so I did, in truth, plan on staying on Earth in the first place.”

“Ree,” Sylphie looked at Vesperia, who had just gotten done spewing off all the reasons to stay she could get off the top of her head.

“I don’t believe that is necessary,” Vesperia argued against Sylphie’s argument.

“Ree.”

“Hm…”

“Ree.”

“An acceptable compromise,” Vesperia agreed with a nod, turning to Jake. “The two of us will stay here until the weakness lingering in your body lessens. Once there is only the long-term damage left to deal with, I will remain on my lonesome. At that time, should an emergency arise, you should be fully capable of defending yourself, correct?”

“Right,” Jake nodded, not a massive fan of not even being included in the discussion, but oh well.

“Then that’s settled,” Vesperia said in a satisfied tone.

“Say… wasn’t the Fallen King with you two?” Jake changed the topic once bodyguard duties were established.

“He chose to stay behind temporarily and will return to Earth at his own pace,” Vesperia said. “From the looks of it, whatever happened to you spilled over and affected him significantly, too, and it appeared like he had some soul damage of his own to heal, though it was far less than you are dealing with.”

“I… see,” Jake sighed, feeling really shitty that his bad decision-making dealt collateral damage to the Unique Lifeform. He had always fully supported the King’s intentions of entirely splitting off from Jake, but before, he hadn’t really seen it as anything with urgency. Now, he hoped the Fallen King would figure out a method sooner rather than later so this wouldn’t even happen again… because Jake was definitely going to mess up again sometime in the future.

Despite how much he fucked up this situation, Jake wouldn’t stop doing risky shit. Risks and rewards would always be intertwined due to how Records and the system worked, and as Villy had said, Jake shouldn’t stop experimenting and taking risks just because of one setback. He should just have at least one extra step of asking himself: “Is this a really moronic thing to do?” before moving forward.

“Worrying over the Unique Lifeform isn’t necessary,” Vesperia tried to comfort Jake. “He shall easily make his way back when he so desires, and even if he was temporarily weakened, there was nothing on that planet even capable of posing a danger.”

“I wasn’t worried about that,” Jake waved her off. He knew the King was strong and even had his trump card if things got too hairy.

The three of them spoke a bit more as the hawk and True Royal got comfortable.

With Sylphie and Vesperia now also there at the lodge, Jake felt like chilling in his hot tub or just reading books all the time would be rude, especially as he hadn’t spent that much time with them recently and had never actually spent that much time around Vesperia, period.

Sylphie also wasn’t the best at doing nothing, and Jake feared that her finding ways to entertain herself would lead to something Miranda would complain about, so he needed some other ways to keep them entertained, at least until Sylphie left. Vesperia could easily keep herself busy working on Hive Queen stuff and her internal world. This left him with something hugely impactful to consider, with potentially the safety of Haven itself at risk:

… what good card games are there for three people? Oh, and it needs to be bird-friendly…

It was only natural for a beta test to have some problems in the initial stages. However, this time, the test had actually gone above and beyond expectations, enough so to be labeled a full-on success. Yet the beta tester was still left with severe issues that the inventors of the teleporter would take no legal or moral responsibility for as it was solely due to his own actions.

Considering that and how the teleporter had clearly worked the first time around, Arnold was soon ready for his second test subject. After much deliberation of who would be best to send, they landed on someone who would have potentially been even better than Jake to send in the first place. At least if one was talking about going to the red planets and helping them defeat their Prima Guardians.

A man who had a political mind, allowing him to expertly handle the native population and naturally also the power to handle the Prima on his lonesome. Moreover, it was someone with an even more effective and reliable method of returning to Earth should anything go wrong. With the right prep work, that is.

“A good view to capture in this moment in time,” the Sword Saint said as he finished painting the landscape in front of him.

“To seal a snapshot of the concept of time within a painting, allowing you to bypass the usual restrictions placed upon travel through space… it’s an interesting application,” Arnold commented from behind.

“It’s not perfect,” Miyamoto shook his head. “Space still contorts time, which is why I selected a planet not too far away. I am far from confident in traveling across an entire galaxy, at least not without significant assistance.”

“More than the circle?” Arnold inquired further.

“A lot more than a magic circle,” he shook his head, having already prepared the circle as he started painting.

All of this was done to allow the Sword Saint to use his painting to return back to Earth in case of an emergency. Rather than call it teleportation, the Sword Saint instead captured himself and the world around him in a specific moment in time, and through the painting, he could return there. Of course, Miyamoto couldn’t actually turn back time, only his physical location. This was by far his best skill as a painter – a profession he did not use actively as much as he certainly should.

Not to say he didn’t constantly use it while practicing, as it even helped his swordsmanship. The Path he walked was as much about simply swinging a sword as it was about visualizing the world, the concepts he controlled, and the future he envisioned for himself. Painting his thoughts and ideas allowed him to turn them not only tangible but entrench them in his mind, as to paint something, he had to truly be able to imagine it.

“Ultimately, the probability of you needing the painting in the first place isn’t high,” Arnold also pointed out. “The Prima Vessel should still exist on the planet even if they prove hostile, and I’m certain you could use that to return, even if it takes threatening the native population with annihilation should they refuse to assist you.”

“I hope to avoid needless violence,” Miyamoto shook his head.

“Most people do, but their refusal to assist you could easily be classified as a need,” the scientist said, the Sword Saint only able to nod in agreement.

“Certainly so. Now, let us proceed. I do wonder just how well this teleporter of yours will work,” Miyamoto said as they headed toward the teleportation circle, and after going over a few things, he took his place in the center of the circle.

It quickly came to life as Arnold looked down at his tablet. “Ah, minor note. The last tester said the process may feel a bit… rough.”

“It shouldn’t be any problem,” the Sword Saint dismissed the notion… only to regret it a few minutes later as he was reminded of why he had never been a big fan of rollercoasters before the system arrived.